16mm AGM Wrightscale kits

We look forward to seeing friends old and new at the Garden Railway Modellers Association AGM in Peterborough. 

We are pleased to say that we can offer Wrightscale WD kits for £48. This includes parts to make two bogies ie enough for a bogie wagon, axles and nylon wheels. Kits are available without wheels for £43

Wrightscale 16mm scale WD bogie. Each kit contains two bogies.The original design represented a light but durable item that was reliable under fire.

The Péchot system bogie well wagon kit is available for £104. This does not include wheels and axles. You will need 4 pairs of wheels, 4 axles. To be authentic, wheels should be of the solid disc type. We recommend Slater’s coarse scale 3’1” wheels – part 7112.

The Péchot flat-wagon provided a reliable maid-of all-work for the French Army. During World War 1,  a lighter version was produced by Decauville. This was the inspiration for the British WD wagons. Wrightscale 16mm kit

The Péchot bogie-mounted crane is available for £68=50. This includes a crane kit with counterweight and a Péchot bogie. To complete the kit, you will need two pairs of wheels, as above.

Rail-mounted crane on Péchot bogie (brakewheel removed). The Péchot bogie was a very solid protottype for the WD bogie (see above), The crane was a way to handle high explosive shells safely. Wrightscale 16mm kit.

The War Department bogie, as produced for WD Light Railways in 1916 was revolutionary in various ways.

It marked a departure in military thinking. In the first years of the War, everyone was looking for a breakthrough, encirclement of the enemy and a quick capitulation. As Major General John Beith (Ian Hay) put it in 1916

‘In the old days, a general of genius could outflank his foe by a forced march or lay some ingenious trap or ambush. But how can you outflank a foe who has no flank or lay an ambush for a modern Intelligence department?’

The first revolution was the trench system.

The trench was supposed to be a temporary shelter in a war of movement. In fact, from 1914-18, vast armies were positioned in the field in trenches. From 'Illustration' magazine.

Time and again, the breakthrough had proved to be an illusion – not before many horses and mules had died at the Front. Usually men were the beasts of burden. The basic army pack was substantial. Ian Hay recalls of the private soldier ‘His outfit is provided by the Government and he carries it himself. It consists of a rifle, bayonet and a hundred and twenty rounds of ammunition. On one side hangs his water bottle containing a quart (about one litre). On the other is his haversack occupied by his iron ration, an emergency meal of the tinned variety which must never be opened except on the word of his Commanding Officer – and such private effects as his smoking outfit and an entirely mythical item of refreshment known as ‘the unexpended portion of the day’s ration’. On his back, he carries a pack containing his greatcoat, water proof sheet and such changes of raiment as a paternal government allows. He also has to find room for a towel, a house-wife and a modest allowance of cutlery. Round his neck he wears his identity disc. In his breast-pocket he carries a respirator to be donned in the event of encountering an east wind and gas from the enemy. He also carries a bottle for dampening the respirator. In the flap of his pocket is a field dressing.

Slung behind him is his entrenching tool.

Any other space about his person is at his own disposal….’

So burdened, for the first two years, the British had to march to the Front.

German soldiers on the advance March 1918. Drawing by Georges Scott. Plenty of equipment is in evidence - trenching tool in the foreground. From 'Illustration' magazine.

The second revolution was freight carrying. For over a year, everything, food, water, ammunition and the wherewithal for making trenches habitable had to be carried in. This might be on foot through communication trenches. These were

‘sunken lanes the best part of a mile long. It winds a great deal. Every hundred yards or so (100m) comes a great promontory of sandbags necessitating four right angle turns…. A stream cuts the trench at right angles, spanned by a structure of planks labelled LONDON BRIDGE. … Presently we arrive at PICADILLY CIRCUS, a muddy excavation from which several passages branch… After passing through TRAFALGAR SQUARE six feet by eight (under 2x2.5m)  find ourselves in the actual firing trench, an unexpectedly spacious affair … with little toy houses on either side. They are hewn out of the solid ground, lined with planks, painted, furished and decorated. .. One eligible residence has a little door nearly 6 feet high (1.8m) a real glass window with a little curtain. Inside there is a bunk, washstand and desk…’  

The heavier supplies were conveyed stealthily by night on carts or on the backs of mules. The amount of freight needed to supply the trenches was enormous, around 160 tonnes daily per mile of active Front. Time and again, the British Army were caught by a lack of supplies.

The third revolution was in favour of railways.

A 16mm model of a WD D-class wagon, body by Swift Sixteen which accurately represents wood, drawbar, rivets and hinges of the original. The bogies are by Wrightscale which  represent the light, resilient originals in crisp detail. 

The railway was the most efficient technology for the period. Between 1914 and 1916, the more ingenious regiments started their own narrow gauge trench systems, using what could be scavenged or ‘borrowed’ from around using a variety of gauges and designs.

A lucky few could use French systems or captured German material. The British Army took over French lines at Hersin and Saulty l’Arbret in early spring 1916.  These were an eye-opener. Originally based on the Péchot System which the French Army had adopted in 1888, these were mighty midgets – trains with 40 tonnes of freight carried along 60cm gauge lines, rapidly laid to serve the Front. Instead of lengths of track butted together, there was fine prefabricated track or fully engineered rails on sleepers. Instead of little trolleys, there were bogie wagons – if a trolley was needed for a small load, a bogie could be used. There were steam engines. By 1915, the French and Germans were beginning to use petrol-engined locomotives as well.

French inspiration for British WD. 16mm model of a Péchot wagon byWrightscale

General Kitchener disapproved. Early lorries were tried. Their wheels cut country dirt roads to ribbons, they guzzled fuel and broke down frequently. They were much improved by the end of the War but in the Somme offensive of July 1916 they added to the problems. Once Kitchener had died, and Lloyd George was facing a ‘shell crisis’ on the Front and a PR disaster on the Home Front, the War Department Light Railway was designed.

There are ways in which this railway was revolutionary.

Unlike the normal railway, these were quickly laid on the most basic of permanent ways. Once a system was no longer needed, it could taken up and laid elsewhere. Because it was so easily dismantled, few traces have been left.

The WDLR was a testing ground for new technologies, such as the internal combustion engine.

It was, above all, a wake-up call for little England. In was based on French (and German) influence. The British WDLR used the metric 60cm gauge, just like the French, not the more customary Imperial 2’ gauge. This was sensible, so that trains could run on each others’ tracks. 

WD D-Class bogie wagon. 16mm model by Swift Sixteen on Wrightscale bogies

The WD bogie wagon was a departure. In the beginning, and when the improvised railways were semi-official, to designs by the Engineer in Chief of each army corps, little four-wheelers were used. Brakes, where fitted were ratchet-lever.

Then the engineers saw the advantages of the French bogie wagon and a home-designed ‘Class C’ bogie wagon was built. Springing was rudimentary, there was no progress in the brakes and loads were limited to 7 Imperial tons.  

Then came Programme B (autumn 1916) and the true WD bogie wagon. Though weighing very slightly more, the classic D-Class WD bogie wagon could take a load of 10 tons (9tons 12hundredweight) to be precise. The bogies had laminated spring axles boxes and brakes operated from a brake pillar. There was a small perch for the brakesman at the end of the bogie – uncomfortable to be sure, but a lot more convenient than operating a brake ratchet at rail level. This was developed from a Decauville design, a lighter, simplified version of the magnificent Péchot platform wagon. WJK Davies described the D-class as a ‘versatile and efficient vehicle’.

In the end, nearly 15,000 wagons of various descriptions were supplied to the British, Canadian and ANZAC sections of the Western Front.

It could be argued that the War was won (or conceded) elsewhere, but if the British had crumbled completely in Northern France the War could have been lost in spring 1918. Fresh supplies, new trenches dug to the rear and reinforcements rushed in … all these helped to stabilise their Front. The tiny trains kept them in the business. 

Wrightscale model of a WD Baldwin 4-6-0 tank engine. 495 were built for the British Army.

Our policy on Data Protection and your Privacy   

Those of you who have put their names on lists of interest may be wondering about changes to the law on Data Protection. As you know, changes come into effect on May 25^th. We have considered the implications of these changes, and how the information we hold might affect your privacy.

We currently store our email address book online. It simply has name and email, no other personal details. All of you who email and expect a reply go into this email address book automatically. Every couple of months, I try to remove the ‘once onlies’  Everyone who emails us has the right to have their address removed immediately. We shall remind every first contact of this right. This is our only online data-base.

Our interest list is held off-line. In it, we try to include date of contact, a full name, postal address and phone number as well as email. This is because email addresses keep changing and we need an alternative way of keeping in touch. We, for example, have been obliged by our providers to change our own email address at least three times. We do not keep other personal details such as partner’s name, date of birth etc.

We do not hold any bank details online. Our policy is cash or cheque if at all possible. Where a customer requires the use of bank transfer, we shall discuss he situation beforehand. Privacy during the transaction will be ensured by the systems of the banks involved. Our bank is the Clydesdale. Their privacy policy is stated at

cbonline.co.uk/gdpr 

If you wish any email correspondence deleted after a payment, please inform us. We do not hold details online. We do not use internet banking.

Before May 25th, our Webmaster will put our privacy policy on the Wrightscale website.

War of 1918 and railways today

We are looking forward to seeing friends old and new at the Garden Railway Show in Peterborough on April 7^th.

Thank you to all our loyal customers who have bought our rolling stock kits over the years. It has been hard to find a good white-metal caster to replace Adrian Swain, but we are delighted to have found one here in Scotland. Even better, our price rises will be very modest. Some prices we can even hold at present levels.  The work is of the quality which you have the right to expect.

Buy now, while the kits are available!

Kits for WD bogies can be made up into a variety of WD wagons – D, E and F-class open wagons, H-class tanker wagons, covered freight wagons and ambulances. Swift Sixteen supply lovely wagon bodies.

We shall bring some Péchot kits. There will be a few of the historic platform wagons, first designed for the French Army in the 1880s, used through the First World War and only now being sold off to preserved railways in France and the UK.

16mm scale Péchot platform wagon made from a Wrightscale kit

We shall also offer the ever-popular mobile crane kit. Being a thoughtful officer, Péchot was aware of the dangers of handling vast high-explosive shells. This crane was one of many designs which aimed to make handling these deadly weights less arduous. Versions of this and the larger version of crane came across the Channel to be used on 2’ gauge prototypes.

16mm model of a Péchot system rail-mounted crane. The strange arrangement on the left is an ingenious counterweight making shellhandling easier

We hope also to have some kits for Mackenzie Holland signal kits. Watch this space!

We will have examples of the Wren 0-4-0 locomotive, the Quarry Hunslet 0-4-0, two forms of the Bagnall Excelsior, the 0-4-2 Tattoo and Baldwin Gas Mechanical locomotive on display. Pictures of our locomotives, and kits, can be found on the website of the show. Please see https://www.nationalgardenrailwayshow.org.uk/exhibitor/wrightscale/

We have been following the events of one hundred years ago. In the last blog, we left the brave Aussies hanging on with their fingernails against the storm-troopers of a furious Germans onslaught.  To recapitulate, this is what had just happened.

Drawing by J. Simont of British gunners March 1918. The artist shows them wearing gas masks. It is not certain that the Germans used tear gas in a space that was just about to be occupied by their own troops, but there was indeed a lot of smoke created by the artillery of both sides. From 'Illustration' magazine

The scene is the department of Somme. North of the river Somme, around the town of Albert were the British 3^rd Army. South of the Somme was the 5^th Army, south again of them were the French.

When waves of German attackers broke over the British 3^rd and 5^th armies on 21^st March 1918, the British were driven back by the speed, weight and fury of the attack. At four am a terrific bombardment started over 90 kilometres/55 miles of front. It stopped at ten past nine. In the time, more than 650,000 shells had been fired.

Normally, a bombardment would go on considerably longer. On this occasion, by the time that the smoke began to clear, the Germans were well on their way across No Man’s Land. They came in their thousands. Against 14 British divisions, there were 47 German ones.

On the south side, the ten divisions of the 5^th Army suffered terrible losses both of casualties and of terrain – up to 12 km/nearly 8 miles in one single day. The four divisions of the 3^rd fared better but also had to retreat to keep a united front.

By March 23^rd, the Germans had achieved their first target. They were poised to seize  communications with Paris.

Makeshift battalion command post at Plessi-le-Roi March 30th. The French were on the hill, the Germans in the chateau grounds below. Illustration magazine

Pétain ordered French support and the French 1^st Army started plugging gaps. The British 3^rd and 18^th Army corps joined with the French. What remained of the 5^th were already under French control.

By 26^th March, the Germans turned their main force on a secondary target, Amiens, sited on the Somme river, and the departmental capital. It controlled communications with northern France, the Channel and Britain. By April 4^th the Germans were within 16 km (10 miles) of the city.

It is argued that if the tide were not turned here, it would soon have been. German élan was nearly spent. They had advanced, fighting all the time, an average of 20km and in some cases much further. Their only supplies were what they had captured from an enemy obsessed about destroying what they could not carry – no water, no ammunition, no transport was to be left available.

It has been said that the Allies were saved by the state of the Somme battle-field. As every tree and building had been destroyed in 1916 and every river-bed was a churned up morass, the bleak landscape offered no shelter and no clean water.

The defenders at Villers-Bretonneux, just east of Amiens, were not to know this. With tremendous courage, they dug in and denied passage to the invaders. All went quiet. On 9^th April, the attack began in a new direction, well to the north of the Somme, this time the area around the river Lys. The pressure on the vital city of Amiens had lifted.

In March/April 1918, 189 steam locomotives were deliberately wrecked. The Baldwin 4-6-0, seen here as a 16mm Wrightscale model was a staple of British frontline transport and many were destroyed.

As the Allies retreated, they tried to keep valuable equipment from enemy use. Both sides knew that a complete 60cm gauge railway system would be as useful to the enemy as it was to their own. Where possible, trains rolled themselves and valuable supplies safely to the rear.

Where there were gaps, freight had to be trans-shipped on to metre gauge or standard, all needing man-power. That said, great things were done, especially north of the Somme. In the British 5^th Army sector, there had been no time to organise a proper trench railway system. They tried to evacuate some locomotives and wagons, but the network was neither wide nor deep enough. What could not be saved was deliberately wrecked.

Many examples of the D-Class wagon were used behind the British Front. Another important wagon was the H-Class which carried water. 1800 wagons had to be burned as the British retreated. 16mm model using Wrightscale bogies

In the the official history – Transportation on the Western Front – Henniker admits that between 21^st March and early April ‘nearly 300 locomotives and tractors were disabled by the removal of essential parts (injectors and magnetos) and nearly 2000 wagons burned. Over the six weeks to the end of April, destruction of 60cm gauge material continued. 189 locomotives and 138 locotractors were destroyed. The trench railway systems serving the Front had suffered equally. In early March 1918, the mileage operated was 920/1472 km. By the end of April, this had dropped to under 360 miles/576km.

If the German advance had been halted, it was a close-run thing .

Our policy on Data Protection and your Privacy    

Those of you who have put their names on lists of interest may be wondering about changes to the law on Data Protection. As you know, changes come into effect on May 25^th. We have considered the implications of these changes, and how the information we hold might affect your privacy.

We currently store our email address book online. It simply has name and email, no other personal details. All of you who email and expect a reply go into this email address book automatically. Every couple of months, I try to remove the ‘once onlies’  Everyone who emails us has the right to have their address removed immediately. We shall remind every first contact of this right. This is our only online data-base.

Our interest list is held off-line. In it, we try to include date of contact, a full name, postal address and phone number as well as email. This is because email addresses keep changing and we need an alternative way of keeping in touch. We, for example, have been obliged by our providers to change our own email address at least three times. We do not keep other personal details such as partner’s name, date of birth etc.

We do not hold any bank details online. Our policy is cash or cheque if at all possible. Where a customer requires the use of bank transfer, we shall discuss he situation beforehand. Privacy during the transaction will be ensured by the systems of the banks involved. Our bank is the Clydesdale. Their privacy policy is stated at

cbonline.co.uk/gdpr  

If you wish any email correspondence deleted after a payment, please inform us. We do not hold details online. We do not use internet banking.

Before May 25th, our Webmaster will put our privacy policy on the Wrightscale website.

Spring 1918 - were the Allies overwhelmed?

We are looking forward to seeing friends old and new at the Garden Railway Show in Peterborough on April 7^th. 

We will have examples of  the Wren 0-4-0 locomotive, the Quarry Hunslet 0-4-0, two forms of the Bagnall Excelsior, the 0-4-2 Tattoo and Baldwin Gas Mechanical locomotive on display, and kits to sell. Pictures of these locomotives, and our kits, can be found on the website of the show. Please see https://www.nationalgardenrailwayshow.org.uk/exhibitor/wrightscale/

The New Data Protection Legislation
Those of you who have put their names on lists of interest may be wondering about changes to the law on Data Protection. As you probably know, these changes come into effect on May 25^th. We have considered the implications of these changes, and how our information might affect your privacy.

In due course, our Webmaster will put up our privacy policy on the website.

We currently store our email address book online. It simply has name and email, no other personal details. Any member of the public who emails and expects a reply goes into this email address book automatically. Every couple of months, I try to remove the ‘once onlies’ in our email address book. Everyone who emails us has the right to havehis/her address removed immediately. We shall remind every first contact of this right. This is our only online data-base.

Our interest list is held off-line. In it, we try to include date of contact, a full name, postal address and phone number as well as email. This is because email addresses keep changing and we need an alternative way of keeping in touch. We, for example, have been obliged by our providers to change our own email address at least three times. We do not keep other personal details such as partner’s name, date of birth etc.

We do not hold any bank details online. As you all know, our policy is cash or cheque if at all possible. Where bank transfer is convenient, we do not hold details online though they will show up in our bank statements which are off-line. Privacy during the transaction will be ensured by the systems of the banks involved. Our bank is the Clydesdale. We have used paypal; in this case privacy is guaranteed by paypal and our own system as described above. If you wish any email correspondence deleted after a payment, please inform us.

The German army devised the flame-thrower in 1917. The Allies soon grasped the principle and this is one of their own photographed before March 1918 'Illustration' magazine

 This blog has been following the First World War as events took place one hundred years ago. The month of March 2018 is the centenary of the German Spring Offensive, also known as die grosse Schlacht or les coups allemands.   

Thanks to peace agreements with the new Soviet Government, the Central Powers no longer had to fear Russia. This released 60 divisions from the east, a force which could be added to the 144 divisions already posted on the western front. Everyone was aware that, given time, the forces of the USA would be entering the War and so a pre-emptive strike from Germany was expected.

The Germans were not going to waste this opportunity. They reorganised their attack around the new concept of the storm-trooper and a recent introduction, the deadly flame-thrower. Up until now, it had been impossible to clear a trench of defenders. Even if attackers had braved no man’s land and were actually in a trench, it could not be raked by fire. The trench was designed without straight lines so there was no straight line of fire.  The feisty flame-thrower was no respecter of angles. If the defenders weren’t actually burned, they died from suffocating heat. 

When waves of German attackers broke over the British 3^rd and 5^th armies on 21^st March one hundred years ago, the British were driven back by the speed, weight and fury of the attack. At four am a terrific bombardment started over 90 kilometres/55 miles of front. It stopped at ten past nine. In the time, more than 650,000 shells had been fired.

Normally, a bombardment would go on considerably longer. On this occasion, by the time that the smoke began to clear, the Germans were well on their way across No Man’s Land. They came in their thousands. Against 14 British divisions, there were 47 German ones.

'Courage, mon ami, on vous aidera' Clemenceau rushed to British HQ to reassure General Haig. In return, British troops were taken under French command. 'Illustration' magazine

On the south side, the ten divisions of the 5^th Army suffered terrible losses both of casualties and of terrain – up to 12 km/nearly 8 miles in one single day. The four divisions of the 3^rd fared better but also had to retreat to keep a united front.

The Germans were lucky to have attacked a load of soldiers just off the troop transports and they certainly made use of their luck. By March 23^rd, they had achieved  their target; they threatened communications with Paris. The remains of the 5^th Army had left the railway through Ham unguarded.

Pétain ordered Humbert back. The French 1^st Army plugged the first gap and then had to reinforce a second, the road to Paris through Montdidier. The British 3^rd and 18^th Army corps joined the French to ‘defend the beating heart of France’ as Hunbert put it.

Fearing the worst, Frenchinfantry guard the Amiens-Paris railway where it crosses the Noye.  'Illustration' magazine

By 26^th March, the Germans turned their main force on a secondary target, Amiens; Paris would have been better. As the centre of communications for the whole of France, the capture of Paris would have left the rest of the country a tangle of writhing limbs. Amiens was still valuable. It controlled communications with northern France, the Channel and Britain. By April 4^th the Germans were within 16 km (10 miles) of the city.

Was the German succes due to British incompetence, or did they make the best of a bad job? Arguments have raged for 100 years. Critics say that British intelligence should have been better, they shouldn’t have spread their forces so thinly, their technique was poor, both in attack and defence. These critics could point to instances of wishful thinking at the top, refusal to learn hard lessons, the lack of artillery on the field.

To quote a couple of examples from an extensive literature there is the book ‘The Mons Myth’ Terence Zuber The History Press 2010. It argues that: ‘British historians portrayed the battles of Mons and Le Cateau as successes of the heavily outnumbered British expeditionary Force which mowed down the Germans with precise and rapid fire… German … fighting techniques have been misunderstood, British troop leading was poor etc’

In The Myth of the Great War Profile Books 2002 edition, John Mosier is even more scathing about British leaders and their unfortunate troops - and also French leadership up until mid-1917. At every stage, the General Staff refused to learn the hard lessons of war. Their attitude towards the ordinary soldier was in every situation a disgrace. They wilfully threw away opportunities. In the earlyyears the vast system of trenches only grew up by accident. The valuable stronghold of Antwerp was thrown away without remorse. He had much that was unflattering to say about 'the miracle of the Marne' They insisted, as a matter of 19^th century principal on trenches being dug in the most dangerous place, a gentle dip slope in full view of the enemy - this suited guns with a horzontal field of fire.

Digging in. The defence was assured by heroic action fromAustralians,French and Britsih who had to dig new trenches to stoip the German advance. The enemy reachedt Villers-Bretonneux on April 4th 1918. 'Illustration'

We have left the brave Aussies hanging on with their fingernails against the storm- roopers of the German Army.  To find out what happened next, wait for the following episode.

The Péchot system and 16mm scale

We are looking forward to seeing friends old and new at the National Garden Railway show in Peterborough on April 7^th. We recommend a look at the Show website, ably curated by Richard Huss.

 https://www.nationalgardenrailwayshow.org.uk/exhibitor/wrightscale/

We are hoping to bring back a series of kits which celebrate the Péchot system. This was a vital part of military transport during the First World War, and for some years afterwards. From 1888 it had been a staple for the French Army. When the vast networks of 60cm railways that served the trenches were sold off, 1919-25, the French kept their Péchot locomotives and rolling stock for military use.

A Péchot wagon has been preserved outside Fermont, a part of the Maginot line. Until 1940 it had been used by the French Army. Photo 2005 S. Wright

Now at last, these wagons and bogies are finding their way on to preserved railways in France and across the Channel, so the enthusiast can enjoy and become familiar with the prototypes. Alas, only two locomotives survive, in transport museums in Dresden and Serbia, but there are a fair few wagons.

We are planning to re-release our 16mm scale kits for wagons and cranes. We thought this might not be possible - our well-respected white-metal caster Adrian Swain heads for a well-deserved retirement. Fortunately, with the help of a new caster and other sources of material, we hope to put the Péchot system back on your rails!

Fine 16mm model by the late Henry Holdsworth features a Péchotwagon in th eforeground with WD rolling stock. Picture courtesy Jim Hawkesworth

This design of bogie was the first project of my hero, Prosper Péchot, the basis of his celebrated Péchot system in 60 cm gauge. The first version of this system was described in a memorandum of 1882, eleven years after the Franco-Prussian War. The essence of his plan was to bring massive bombardments on the heads of the detested Prussians; an ambition shared by his military colleagues. Unfortunately for the French Army, short of building a standard gauge railway under the noses of the Germans there seemed no way of bringing big guns and quantities of ammunition close enough.

The secret of the system? Prosper Péchot took advantage of new technologies, science and experimentation to devise a portable railway. According to his calculations, the French army could extend such a railway several kilometres from an existing railway and have it near enough to threaten a German position within a few days.

Parts of a Wrightscale 16mm scale Péchot bogie. It ran on four wheels. Each axle could support 3.5 tonnes. Two axles could support in theory 7 tonnes but the loading was rated for safety at 5 tonnes.

 Science and trials in a Decauville factory demonstrated that a locomotive could run on 60 cm gauge. Yes, his plan was to create a railway a mere TWO FEET in gauge consisting of lengths of portable track. Each was light enough to be carried by a team of four. Admittedly, there was a lot of improvisation in those first trials, using whatever Decauville could provide. Péchot proved a principle: each axle could support a loading of 3.5 tonnes on this specially designed track and four axles together could support 14 tonnes. This was enough for a proper locomotive, and for a train of freight - as long as the wagons were supported by a sufficient number of bogies.

Spring pin from a Wrightscale Péchot bogie kit. This modest component could be used as a rerailing point

Like the prefabricated rail, the bogie had to be robust yet light enough to handle. A single bogie could carry a load of 5 tonnes on light rail. Not only could these run on an unpromising permanent way – a muddy farm track would do at a pinch – but also they could be re-railed by a couple of operators using materials to hand.

Stake from a Wrightscale Péchotwagon kit. This dual-purpose item could be used for load-retention but also as a rerailing bar.

At the time, this was all ‘cutting edge’ Steel of the quality and quantity required was only recently becoming available. Press tools capable of stamping out components from the new steels were also recent introductions. The idea of wagons running on bogies only went main-stream some years previously. For example, the celebrated GWR of Britain only introduced bogie wagons in 1873 (source wikipedia entry on GWR).THere wasn't even a French-language word for the bogie. It was often called 'wagon' or 'truck'

Péchot gathered ideas from around the world. He owed much to Paul Decauville who introduced a workable system of portable railways to industry and agriculture. He took an interest in the Festiniog railway, also the Darjeeling Himalaya Railway and there is evidence that he looked at logging railways of the USA. He felicitously combined them into something unique.

Trunnions from a Wrightscale 16mm crane kit, used to link bogie with wagon or in this case a rail-mounted crane. Péchot called it a 'turntable'. This link was totally flexible - useful on a winding track.

He did not go for officially sanctioned narrow-gauge. At the time, only metre gauge  was permitted for goods and freight in France. French government policy was to requisition what was available in time of war rather than to have independent military transport. As metre gauge networks spread out around France, so the confidence in using this version of narrow gauge spread. Péchot was therefore considered a maverick and a potentially expensive one.

Péchot wagon pictured on the Apedale railway by Jim Hawkesworth in 2014. Though shorn of its loading stakes (and other things beside) the wagon looks pretty good for its 115 years.

In order to introduce his system, he all but sacrificed his career. Once it was officially adopted in 1888, the French Army used it though it was fairly run-down by the early 1900s. The Prussians, however, who had been flirting with other gauges suddenly adopted 60cm for themselves. The date? 1888. Bogie wagons equally appeared. Coincidence? No. They knew a good thing when they saw it.

You might like to read:

Bailly, Roger ‘Decauville, ce nom qui fit le tour du monde’

Cénac, Dr Christian 60 cm pour ravitailler l’Armée francaise 14-18 (both French language)

Dunn Richard ‘Narrow Gauge to No Man's Land’

Wright Sarah ‘Colonel Péchot: Tracks to the trenches’ (story and pictures in English)

Wrightscale 16mm Pechot bogie non-slip decking. Before the days of Health and Safety, the designer thought about the welfare of the soldier. Shifting heavy weights in frost and rain was hazardous enough

.